He was on "Hannity and Colmes" tonight. Usually Colmes is useless, but he put Joe in his place. Joe stated that "he doesn't want someone taking his money and giving it to someone else". Colmes pointed out the fact that Mr. Plumber was on welfare (something I didn't know), and had no problem taking other people's money. Joe really didn't have a good answer to that.

So maybe we should stop calling him "Joe the Plumber" but "Joe the WELFARE QUEEN".

I loved the fact he went into that interview probably thinking it was safe being on Fox News, and then he gets owned by Alan Colmes.

Strains Between McCain and Palin Aides Go Public
Report: Palin's Wardrobe Is to Be Audited by GOP
By KATE SNOW

Nov. 6, 2008 —

Now that the defeated team of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have gone their separate ways, the knives are out and Palin is the one who is getting filleted.

Revelations from anonymous critics from within the McCain-Palin campaign suggest a number of complaints about the Alaskan governor:

Fox News reports that Palin didn't know Africa was a continent and did not know the member nations of the North American Free Trade Agreement -- the United States, Mexico and Canada -- when she was picked for vice president.

The New York Times reports that McCain aides were outraged when Palin staffers scheduled her to speak with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, a conversation that turned out to be a radio station prank.

Newsweek reports that Palin spent far more than the previously reported $150,000 on clothes for herself and her family.

Several publications say she irked the McCain campaign by asking to make her own concession speech on election night.

The tension is likely to continue or get worse. Lawyers for the Republican National Committee are heading to Alaska to try to account for all the money that was spent on clothing, jewelry and luggage, according to The New York Times.

Reports of agitation between the two camps bubbled up in the final weeks of the campaign as Barack Obama began pulling away and the GOP duo was unable to regain the momentum.

But those reports are no longer in the rumor stage as McCain loyalists are now blasting away at the Alaska governor, who was a favorite of the Republican right during the campaign, but was cited in numerous polls as a reason why many Americans wouldn't vote for the Arizona Republican.

Perhaps the most dangerous allegation for Palin are reports in The New York Times and Newsweek that when she was urged by McCain adviser Nicole Wallace to buy three suits for the Republican convention and three suits for the campaign trail, she went on the now-infamous shopping spree at swank stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

A Republican donor who agreed to foot a majority of the expenses was stunned when he received the bill, Newsweek reported. Both the Times and Newsweek report that the budget for the clothing was expected to be between $20,000 and $25,000. Instead, the amount reported by the Republican National Committee was $150,000.

That wasn't the whole tab, however, according to Newsweek. The magazine claims that Palin leaned on some low-level staffers to put thousands of dollars of additional purchases on their credit cards. The national committee and McCain became aware of the extra expenditures, including clothes for husband Todd Palin, when the staffers sought reimbursement, Newsweek reported.

McCain Aide Calls Palin Family 'Wasilla Hillbillies'

There is one comment in particular from a McCain aide that guaranteed to heighten friction between the two camps. The angry aide described the Palin family shopping spree to Newsweek as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast."

It's unclear how much McCain knew about the clothing debacle. Reports suggest that he was kept out of the loop for fear that he would not approve.

Both Newsweek and The New York Times say McCain and Palin had little contact with each other.

"I think it was a difficult relationship," one top McCain official confided to The New York Times. But a high level McCain adviser told ABC News that the two had a good working relationship.

"He likes her," this senior McCain adviser said last week. "He's had no problem with her. He's very appreciative of what she's done."

The adviser said McCain and Palin talked at least once a day. He also said McCain frequently joked about how large Palin's crowds were compared to his.

However, press accounts today suggest that Palin rubbed many of the McCain aides the wrong way. On election night when it was clear that McCain would be giving a concession speech instead of an acceptance speech, Palin approached McCain with a speech in hand hoping to make her own concession speech, according to published reports.

Vice presidential candidates traditionally leave the spotlight to the top of the ticket on election night and McCain aides made it clear to Palin that she would be a spectator that night, not a speaker, The New York Times reported.

And when McCain and Palin split up in Arizona Wednesday, the personal differences were stark.

McCain drove himself home in a Toyota sport utility vehicle. Palin's departure was a grander event. She left with an entourage of 18 family members and friends and a Secret Service detail, heading to the airport in a motorcade stretching more than a dozen vehicles, flanked by a dozen more cops on motorcycles.

Interview Prep Lacking, McCain Staffers Say

McCain aides had numerous complaints about Palin. She was unwilling or unable to find the time and energy to prep for her disastrous interview with Couric. And when she did study, she astonished her handlers by her unsophisticated views.

She didn't know Africa was a continent, according to Newsweek. Fox News revealed that during her cramming, she couldn't name the three countries that belong to the North American Free Trade Agreement: the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Questions followed Palin home to Alaska. She was asked about some of the accusations from anonymous sources when she landed there late Wednesday.

Asked about the Fox report that she did not know the NAFTA members or that Africa was a continent, Palin said, "If they're an unnamed source, that says it all. I won't comment on anyone's gossip based on anonymous sources. That's kind of a small of a bitter type of person who anonymously would charge that I didn't know an answer to a question. So until I know who's talking about it, I won't have a comment on a false allegation."

Palin Insists She's No Diva

When pressed on what went wrong with the campaign, she said, "I certainly am not one to ever waste time looking backwards."

She defended herself against the notion that she is to blame for the failure of the McCain-Palin ticket.

"I don't think anybody should give Sarah Palin that much credit, that I would trump an economic, woeful time in this nation that occurred about two months ago, that my presence on the ticket would trump the economic crisis that America found itself in a couple of months ago and attribute John McCain's loss to me," Palin told reporters in Arizona Wednesday.

"Now, having said that, if I cost John McCain even one vote, I'm sorry about that because John McCain I believe is the American hero. I had believed that it was his time. & He being so full of courage and wisdom and experience, that valor he just embodies, I believe he would've been the best pick, but that is not the Americans' choice at this time."

She also rejected the characterization that she was a "diva" on the campaign trail, as one anonymous McCain adviser told CNN.

"If only people, y'know, come on up and travel with us to Alaska and see this 'diva' lifestyle that I supposedly live or would demand, because it's just false," she said.

Asked about her national political ambitions, she said, "I have not given it any thought in the context of making any kind of decisions at all, so no, just happy to be back here."

In one of her favorite coffee shops in Wasilla Tuesday morning, Palin summed it up this way: "Forever, I'm going to be Sarah from Alaska."

Well, after reading that, no wonder some Republicans want to have her as their nominee in 2012.

Joe The Bare Faced Liar??...or what about simply "Joe The Republican"

The GOP finger pointing is getting ugly.

Sarah Palin 'did not know Africa was a continent', say aides

By, Anne Barrowclough

Sarah Palin spent "tens of thousands" more than the quoted $150,000 on clothes for the Republican campaign, met McCain aides in her hotel room dressed in nothing but a towel, and did not know Africa was a continent, according to new reports.

Fox news has reported that Mrs Palin did not understand that Africa was a continent, not a country, and did not know what countries were in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In separate claims made in the latest issue of Newsweek magazine, the Republican vice presidential nominee was reported to have been told to buy three suits for the Republican convention, and to hire a stylist. Instead, she went on a spending spree in upmarket stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

Quoting unnamed sources within the McCain camp, the magazine alleges that most of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who "was shocked when he got the bill."

An angry aide described the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast", and predicted that the truth would eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

The magazine also claimed that Mrs Palin used low ranking staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards, and that up to $40,000 was spent on clothes for her husband Todd.

A number of articles of clothing have been lost, the magazine states.

The disclosures are made in "How He Did It, 2008", in Newsweek's Special Election Project, a behind-the-scenes account of the presidential election produced the day after the polls closed.

The magazine also claims that at the GOP convention in St. Paul, when aides Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her, Ms Palin walked into the room wearing only a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat to Todd, adding: "I'll be just a minute."

Other election revelations include that on the night Hillary Clinton officially lost the Democratic nomination, she enjoyed a long and friendly phone conversation with McCain.

"Clinton was actually on better terms with McCain than she was with Obama," reports the magazine. "Clinton and McCain had downed shots together on Senate junkets; they regarded each other as grizzled veterans of the political wars and shared a certain disdain for Obama as flashy and callow. "

Quoting unnamed sources within the McCain camp:

Sure, we saw lots of cat fights in the last few weeks.
There were these two hoggettes named Kate Snow and Anne Barrowclough who always got upset when ever the Gov. was around. Seems like all the guys wouldn't give either of them the time of day. They were often upset with the littlest things and very unhappy when neither of them could get any one on one time with the Gov. or her husband, the "First Dude".

One unnamed source went on to say that they saw both women drinking openly together and one also hinted that some light touching between the two women took place. When asked about the Gov. new clothes, Snow was quick to say that SHE didn't take the missing items. When a McCain worker asked her what she was talking about, Snow just turned and walked away.

Man the GOP is really in a circular firing squad. And to think they are all experts at smearing their enemies... I am really enjoying this!

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/11/five-reasons-th.html

Five reasons the Sarah Palin pick was a disaster:

1. All she did was add enthusiasm. Time and again, enthusiasm was the only thing that McCain himself mentioned when defending his terrible choice. She made people who were going to vote against Obama enthusaistic about voting for McCain. That's it.

2. She cost McCain the "experience" card. The No. 1 misgiving people had (and still have) about Obama is his lack of experience. The campaign simply could not make that case when it was willing to put someone with no record a 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.

3. She was a laughingstock. Even I did not know how much of a punchline she would become. Forget the notion that any press is good press. She was defined by SNL as a nutty, inexperienced, naive Barbie doll.

4. There was some truth to the parody. It was funny because it was true. She does believe the world is only 4,000 years old. She did shoot moose from a helicopter. And when Tina Fey got laughs for re-enacting, verbatim, Palin's answers in an interview, it was funny because it was true! We were not laughing with Sarah. We were laughing at her.

5. In accepting the attack dog role, she let others (including the McCain camp) define her and her role. She should have done so many interviews that we got tired of her. She should have stuck to what she knew best (energy -- her policy speech on that issues was a major high point, but it came too late). She was all image, no substance. She seemed perpetually perched behind a podium shouting to those enthusiastic crowds, when she should have been doing press conferences (not a one!) and interviews so that moderates could warm up to her.

Someone said Palin was like a good AAA player being brought up to the big leagues too fast.

As a liberal democrat I sort of felt badly for her. Sure she was a train wreck, but the real problem lies with McCain and his staff. Obviously she was not properly vetted, not properly rolled out. She is obviously a talented politician, but she was not ready for prime time. This is not her fault, it is McCain and his staff's fault for putting her in a position she should have never been in. Frankly I was terrified McCain would pick Tom Ridge. If he had I think this would have tourned out much closer if not differently.

I predict that Palin will flame out and that she will not be a factor in the future Republican Party.

I predict that people will forget all the Palin goofs in another couple of months*. She will be a serious contender for the next presidential run.

*People had already forgotten the Obama's pastor issue before election. Some other new controversies like terrorist/socialist had taken its place.

It certainly appears that way right now. The Good Ole Boys network is already leaking bad reports about her and she is apparently becoming a scapegoat for them.

Dunno how much of anything is true but she'll be soon forgotten by party leaders (as a future candidate).

I agree with both of you guys. Fair or not, the Good Ole Boys will scapegoat her.

Tom Ridge must be laughing his ass off right now.

And yet, why is everyone NOW saying that it was a bad pick?

I mean remember months back when Kathleen Parker at National Review got thousands of hate-emails because she dared to say the obvious?

I thought he was going to go with Ridge, and this would almost certainly have won him PA, but part of McCain's problem was the association with George Bush. While I am an Obama supporter, I thought that his campaign's portrayal of McCain as an extension of Bush was misplaced, but it seemed to work with the electorate.

Anyway, McCain would have had a harder time distancing himself from Bush with a Bush appointee as a running mate. Then again, he could have pounded away on Obama with greater force on the experience issue.

And an often-unheard celebrity is apparently happy:

Bob Dylan: "Things are going to change now"

No one was expecting Bob Dylan to say a thing during his two-plus hour concert last night at Northrop Auditorium. For years, Dylan has been known to keep to himself during shows, often only speaking between songs once in order to introduce his band members. But last night, after a lengthy break between his regular set and his encore which I can only imagine was spent discovering that Barack Obama had won the election, Dylan returned to the stage to play "Like a Rolling Stone" and then turned to the audience and spoke.

"I was born in 1941," he said, a wavering sentimentality in his scratchy voice. "That was the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I've been living in darkness ever since. It looks like things are going to change now."

He turned back to his keyboard and led the band in an almost unrecognizable rendition of "Blowin' in the Wind." Throughout most of the set, Dylan opted to keep his voice low and sparse as he half-sang, half-coughed the words into the microphone, but at the end of "Blowin' in the Wind" he strained his voice to hit the high register of the original melody and held onto the words in the chorus as long as he could. When his voice couldn't bear any more, he picked up his harmonica and practically skipped to the center of the stage. Even from my seat in the balcony it was obvious that Dylan was excited, and it only served to further ignite the fired-up crowd.

As the entire sold-out room rose to its feet with praise, Dylan and his bandmates lined up at the front of the stage to take a bow. In his tight tuxedo pants and white wide-brimmed hat, Dylan danced around like a marionette doll, waving his pointer fingers in the air like guns. It was surprisingly charismatic and endearing moment, and it had the whole room roaring with cheers and applause.

The house lights went up, and our attention turned quickly to the other main man of the night. The crowd started cheering "O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma" in unison as we made our way out of the auditorium. Walking toward the lobby, a swell of loud cheers suddenly rose from the foyer and we rushed to the stairwell to see what had happened. A screen in the lobby projected the results of the election: Obama had already received a projected 297 electoral votes.

As each new throng of concertgoers entered the lobby, a new wave of cheering -- no, screaming -- would erupt. The woman next to me broke down in sobbing tears. My dad turned to me and said, "We won. We finally won." We made our way out into the night, and a huge crowd of concertgoers were already partying in front of the auditorium, dancing to the beat of an impromptu bongo beat. Car horns were honking, people were screaming, and the whole world felt like it had let out one giant, simultaneous sigh of relief.

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2008/11/bob_dylan_thing.php

Guess what I got in today's mail?

The "Obama for President" button I ordered two months ago.

Save it, SC. Maybe you can sell it on EBay.

Yeah, along with the copy of the New York Post announcing that Obama won. I bought a copy yesterday and later found out they were selling for $100 on EBay.

I always miss out on those Get Rich Quick opportunities!!

SC,

I got mine about 2 weeks ago. One was free and I ordered 3 for small donation. I was surprised how tiny they were. Hang on to it. It may be worth something someday or just for historic value.

I searched all over for a newspaper for the headline yesterday. Every place was out. A friend of mine husband drove to the Press Enterprise and bought a couple papers. I need to figure out how to store it. I figure my grand daughters or their kids could bring it for a History Day show and tell...who knows hu?

TIS

I was disappointed at the size of the button (it's about the size of a quarter), but it was free.

I've saved many newspapers from historical times. I bought a large plastic container (you can get one in WalMart) and put in those moisture fighting packets that come with shoes or some other products. Keep the container in a dry, dark place.

The initial reaction here is "bullshit", but it is still under investigation.

Not that I'll be able to see it, but does anyone know what time "President" Obama's press conference is?


Also, for anyone who is interested, Move On is giving away free "Yes We Did" stickers. I'm sure they are not huge, but great to hang on to for history purposes. It'll take 5 - 7 weeks to get them :o, but hey, they're free.


TIS

Fair Enough.

On a much much smaller scale, at my school we had our first (and hopefully only)political fight between two (middle school) boys, one who was disappointed at an Obama win and said so, causing the other to start a physical fight. How often do political views affect middle school kids?


TIS

Sounds like the next 4-8 years.

BTW Tis, that Obama press conference is around 1:30 today or so.